Morning! Boys have been to dentist, with predictable results: no cavities, need more work on brushing though. Here's what's up today: RPG: most urgent, I need to sketch out my game. Tonight's will be challenging. Plan for: outline what I need to do for admin at beginning of game outline recap essentials, including that characters do not have to voluntarily enter embedded world variable number of players initial encounter on ice landscape, world on ice and en route to port city Kiati -- sketch out Kiati, including transport to/from 'cause it floats. Regular boats for hire, of various sizes, shuttling about? scanning shore for folks who want to get out there? if you don't have money, indentured work for a few days to pay? how enforced? &c. plan trigger for voluntary transition to embeded world backup trigger for involuntary transition plan range of events after transition: short: get the lay of the land + one item of interest/importance medium: ??? long: just have an idea of how to accomplish this -- almost certainly won't use it, but might need it post on reddit forum for help on making a pre-game/game-prep checklist fitness for boys: run, strength school for boys: language, music for younger, math (algebra) + literature for elder home: engage cleaning, meals other: (to be added as I need it)

Oooh, I want to have dinner at your house! 🙂 Today got a bit derailed by a false-alert on the puppy front: we're due for a puppy in February, and the breeder thought she might need a home TOMORROW for a puppy from her current litter but it turned out that she didn't. She is being lovely and not at all messing with us, but it was a rather chaotic-feeling Saturday evening + Sunday morning. Left: exercise (boys, me); language work, math, music for boys; we missed lunch reading but I'd like to do some Bible, some holiday prep, some RPG prep, and make dinner. Also general chores. This week's short list: finish holiday prep, holiday baking, school stuff, prepare for puppy, work on game, fitness.

Today went fairly well; got a good deal of Christmas prep done, some work on my game, some exercise, some chores. Tonight: evening yoga, bath, drink plenty of water, find Christmas lights. Tomorrow: get boys' run in when it isn't raining, do their strength stuff; aerobics, walk, strength and stretching for me; younger alternate Greek and music, do some math; elder study for language exams, do some math; Bible all around, read at lunch; prep game; holiday preparation. Dinner: ??? maybe pizza galettes. Round out shopping list, plan week's meals.

Morning! Today's focus is on organizing, getting my feet under me, preparing for game + holiday. MIL having some health problems; my head's full of bees: hard to really focus. MIL health: I have to leave this to DH, and help out where I can. RPG: work for 25" to draft work plan for the next game, the campaign. Holiday: do a round of presents. Engage some of the current list (wreaths, lights, food, gift list, food list, plans for holiday). School: Languages all around, music for younger, math + literature for elder. House: Routines/chores. Garden: do something. Probably weed bit more, get more mulch down. Fitness: boys (strength, run); me (step or run, strength, evening stretch).

Evening! Today was quite a day; final, Zoom mediation for our dog, who will not be coming home. 😞 but was expected. Got some school + a good deal of chores done, and some holiday prep. Off to bathe, read to boys, thrown in a load of laundry.

Morning! Today: go over last week's plan, reflect & draft this week's RPG: I need to switch from our current system (Dungeon Crawl Classics) to Dungeons & Dragons, which is simply much more straightforward to run and for which I can get a lot more support. As in, pre-written adventures I'd be willing to run. So, e-mail group RE switch, reminder of upcoming nested game format + note that it will be obvious to them take a few notes RE last night's game take a few notes on changing systems write out what I'd like to have when I start next week's session, including a trigger-able intro to the nested universe Fitness: boys AM run, and strength me: AM yoga, run, strength, some PM yoga/stretching School: languages, math, literature/reading art time, some memory work House: chores, garden work (work on weeding, mulch down, paint touch-ups) list of stuff for DH's office Holiday pull out tree lights, help younger get lights on his tiny tree lists! plan a Wrapping Expedition ring hardware store, see if they have the Mason jars I need Joy get my hands on some holiday music begin an after-dinner Christmas book with boys

It's wonderful that you're on schedule for school stuff. I'm not!!! Today, remaining: RPG prep house/groceries: kitchen orderly, boys put their laundry away, vacuum bedrooms music for younger run for boys drink a ton of water run RPG

Afternoon! We brought home our tree today: hurrah! On the schedule: RPG: after tons of banging my head (figuratively speaking) I finally figured out what I need to do next: sketch out the campaign arc for the whole world, perhaps sketch in a bit of the unknown stuff at the beginning for a nice package, and then figure out at least two possible directions for my players to take + have some points to hit to give it a subtle holiday lift (themes of charity/family/community/virtue and a local, in-game festival or holiday). RPG: plus, some bookkeeping: spells for characters, study my system, look over character sheets and work with players to define different areas of specialization. Especially: wizard versus elf for mechanical stuff. Holiday: request some books, draft holiday lists: home; stuff for family; stuff for community. Fitness: step today (I ran yesterday -- hurrah!), strength, yoga. Garden/outdoors: bonus to do anything out there. 🙂 Look at week's goal list, try to engage stuff there.

Afternoon! Today: languages; RPG work (draft next game); fitness for boys; fitness for me; turkey &c for dinner; house; garden?; music for younger. Will keep me busy!

Morning! Good luck with dinner tonight 🙂 -- I'm not sure what how I'll wrangle ours, I must say; younger's piano teacher is in China now so his lesson will fall at 6 pm which is in the range of witching hour 'round here. RPG: I worked on recap stuff yesterday. Today: send recap, keep notes for pre-session work (leveling up, run adventure-in-adventure by players, recap, etc.), contact my spellcasters about spells for them, work on story. Goal: write 500 words in WorldAnvil for December challenge (of 10k words -- it will be a lot of words for me!). School: schedule around RPG chunks so I can think. Everybody kicks off with math: languages all around, including a Latin review for younger; literature for elder, assigned reading for younger. Music: work with younger on music, plus set things up for lesson. Partner (DH has been having a hard time lately, this week I'm trying to put things in place to make life just feel more pleasant and look-forwardable-to): do some things on this list: order table, lamp for his study; carpet/rug for his study; find a throw for it; measure out the space to put bookshelves in; measure stuff so we could put TV equipment in a cabinet; find place for oversized mirror to reflect more light; work on potting his plants. Holiday: work on gift list, prep for tree. Fitness: boys: run, strength; me: run, strength, some yoga. Keep home running. Dinner: SUPPOSED to be the extra turkey. With other stuff. Crossing my fingers + figuring out my plan.

Well, MY head's been buried in the sand so I kept trying to post yesterday but couldn't get my account working b/c I hadn't read the helpful, friendly, completely obvious pin RE fixing the passwords. Sigh. But I'm here now! @Critterfixer: first, 🎉 NaNoWriMo! 🎉 It feels so good to hear about your 150,000 words. Thanks for writing, and thanks for sharing your progress. It helps 🙂 Second, way to keep walking + please don't freeze to death, I would miss you and I bet your family would too. Third, Weight of Ink looks incredible but I fell off at the first sentence, drove me absolutely bananas and pushed buttons I suppose. The hope = opiate thing I get conceptually, but as the kickoff to a book with such a dominant religious streak it was too religion-is-the-opiate-of-the-masses to me and the cadence of the language seemed a beat off. Anyhow, as the only person of faith in this household, perhaps I'm a little too sensitive to these things? It is so much of a better book, and such lovely prose, compared to what I've ACTUALLY been reading lately that it isn't fair to critique it for this, but I suspect I'm not in the right place to appreciate it right now. I saw that some of the other readers had a reaction similar to yours; and what a neat idea, to track something that you're working on in your own writing & use it to develop your craft. Today: migraine management plus not-crying are, honestly, good places to start. Here's the bucket list: 1. Kick off with breakfast up to MIL + spend some time just being with younger dude. Perhaps give him a bath at the same time. 2. Hour for RPG work. Spend half of it sketching out general nodes on my world with themes and tie-ins to the climax for each of them. Second half should be getting a session review out to my players + preparing them to level up. 3. Greek with younger, music with younger; literature with elder; everybody needs to do some math today and read some good books. 4. Kid fitness: run program + strength. 5. Me fitness: today is step + strength. 6. Another hour of RPG work. 7. Takeout date night with DH. 8. In between: house, week's list.

Us, too! Well, that's what Christmas looks like here. We're more like your January weather at the moment: sunny & nippy. Hoping we get tons of rain soon, though the boys will protest having to run in it ... Today's big item is prepping for my game tonight; I didn't make time to take good notes after the last session months ago and it is biting me. Plus, there are various odds & ends that need fixing. And the whole thing is sort of surreal ... I'd never spend this much time on our game if it weren't so necessary for holding our social circle together, and for providing my friends with a much-needed source of joy/fun & break from routines. A good thing is that it is making me work on skills in story-building, and I've always wanted to have better fiction abilities. That's cool. So: Game: move into last-minute prep, work through YouTube prep video, review QuickStart guide for my system. Not-game: keep folks fed, keep house decent, exercise boys & myself, stay cheerful, upbeat + music for younger, writing for elder. PS -- You've got me curious about The Weight of Ink ... I'll reward myself later & go check it out. And: 5 miles is such a great walk, seems to me, that distance will seriously engage your systems 🙂 You are wise not to push it ... I injured myself a bit and these days (or at this time of life!) things seem to heal so slowly...

Happy Thanksgiving! (late!) Today: finish eating leftover pie. Work on game: try to get play-able by end of day. Fix the living room, which is utterly disheveled b/c of furniture moving. Ideally leave it better than it was. Food: chicken stock, prep veggies to roast, prep second round of pies, clean out 'fridge. House: straighten, remove + clean screens, clean some windows. Fitness: boys (run), me (aerobic, strength). Joy.

PS: bonus content 😉 Head rub brings happiness to a baby. Apparently, sea urchins like hats.

Morning! I'm feeling rather satisfied for posting in the AM. If barely. Today: pies, fitness (me & boys), read something challenging + cool, chores, get outside, work on RPG. I got some wonderful help on Reddit, so I just need to apply it & ask for help with my next problem.

Wow!!! like: !!!!!! That's amazing! DH is going to fall over, I mentioned your 5K words-per-day to him last week and he was floored. Good luck recovering! We made it through today: essential vacation-school, got chores done, cut boys' hair (looks fine but took forever), fitness okay. Did NOT get the pie ingredients prepped, so tomorrow'll be crazy busy. Did get some RPG work done.

To the first: 🤣 oh yes my friend. To the second: CRANBERRIES! That's what I left off the shopping list! Guess who'll be making a market run tomorrow ... Today: This morning, focus on keeping boys sane enough (a chore, reading, let them play online) and writing/planning my RPG for this month, plan out changes to school room -- draft list of to do, stuff we need -- and spend 15" or so planning Christmas. RPG notes work on, post for help with magic/cursed book -- one option: flesh out motivation for creation of book/book's own motivation & allow PCs to suborn it? work on game for next week: get info on new player, figure out where everybody is, how to re-incorporate player who's back from maternity leave, have fleshed-out options for "palace" conflict, for the tavern/bar resolution, for the artifact in the excavation site, for the mainland ambassador, for the city's gov't (there was some sort of board of representatives that was due to meet in a few days) have two options (at least) for players to pursue next: port city + ??? Lunch: Get groceries away from DH's shopping run, probably watch Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. Afternoon: piano practice, chores, language & poetry review, prep for evening game, fitness. Dinner: takeout Evening: RPG, my younger child is running tonight's game. Be kind & loving & enthusiastic, stay sane. 🙂

Afternoon! Today: various prep stuff. Plus, run with boys (we have a make-up day due to rain, since our rain gear is enroute). Will jot as I go. Thanksgiving food shopping list: for everything in #2 Plan for Thanksgiving week food: to give, for us. pies, 2 of each: apple, pumpkin, caramel pecan tart. bread whole-grain gingerbread for Thanksgiving morning, oranges for juice, plan for baked eggs ? turkey for MIL; turkey for us veggies to roast, ingredients for stuffing, for cranberry sauce, for gravy, for mashed potatoes butternut squash soup for MIL cookies to give: peanut butter, chocolate chip, grown-up chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin: ingredients, make dough, freeze balls Plan for post-Thanksgiving activities: when to make popcorn balls + cookie decorations for tree, go tree shopping, get lights up, have tree-trimming "party". Work on Christmas gift list. food to give: shortbread, homemade toffee, Work on holiday general plan. Work on my picking up my RPG game: e-mail group, look over notes, post for help with magic book specs. Housework. Garden work. Exercise. Pray. 🙂 week's meals: Sun (broccoli pasta, baked squash); Mon (Vietnamese takeout); Tues (gallete(s), maybe soup or squash); Wed (breaded porkchops + salad -- one of boys' favorite meals); Fri (leftovers).

Afternoon/evening 🙂 Glad you're feeling better today! We saw a continuation of the renormalization theme this week. Boys had language(s) and chemistry work: I'm troubleshooting their chemistry stuff as we come up to speed. I ordered the textbooks I'll want for the elder, and need to get a copy of McHenry's Elements + some living chem books for younger. Also: worked a lot on younger's music, hurrah. Worked in house, did some unpleasant e-mailing I need to get done. Remaining: bit more music, bit more housework, bit more e-mailing; dinner (breaded pork chops, salad + fresh veggies, ideally some cookies); fitness (boys: run + strength; me: step + strength); bedtime read-alouds.

Oh, I'm embarrassed to say how much better this makes me feel! I wouldn't wish heaps of entropy on anyone, esp. not these days, but it is shocking how much work it takes to hold it at bay. Particularly when our usual routines are so disrupted and the new normal is only higher-entropy than the old one! ETA: my major triumph these days is that the children generally go to bed in a contented state of mind, and the elderly one in our greater household (she is in an attached apartment, we provide breakfast & other support) is doing well. ETA #2: I _love_ that you write! It is bringing me happiness 🙂

Well, I'm being accountable earlier today than yesterday: that's something! I realized late last night that today would need to be re-routed to a Renormalization Day. The house is a mess and nerves are frayed. I've spent the day working on the house, keeping the family going and hitting the minimum in the boys' school. Still to do: clear hearth; boys finish school (math, Latin for elder; music, Greek for younger); fitness for boys; one errand to run; dinner; bedtime read-alouds; fitness for me somewhere. Tomorrow: more focus on getting to languages, English, and math for everybody. We'll try to hit fine arts too, but I'll still need to dedicate time to getting the house straightened out.

Afternoon! Today's parade of daily adventures (some of which we've already experienced)... School: language(s), math, English for younger, history all around. Quick poetry review, music for younger, prep tomorrow's work: languages, math, English, science + fine arts. Home: chores, groceries away, ordered books for elder. Fitness: boys DareBee run program + DareBee general fitness; step + strength for me, bit of stretch before bed. Dinner: Vietnamese takeout -- our usual for game night RPG: younger is still running his game. Give him time to go over stuff, set aside time to work on my character + set up for the Zoom. @Critterfixer: hurrah for -- especially -- your writing + art!

Following this ... for those who like Novare but may need a non-religious curriculum, many of the titles are available from Centripetal Press in non-religious formats. The paper quality isn't as wonderful, because there isn't enough demand for the CP books to warrant the more-expensive materials, but the books are good quality and the content is at Novare's high standards.

@Aboyd1Hi! and congratulations on getting homeschooling up & running. I've just a few minutes this morning, but let me toss a few ideas out to you. First: of course Khan Academy has video components to everything. Math: two programs I know of with strong video components are: Math U See Teaching Textbooks Science: Schlessinger's Library Video Company has a pricey but very good line of DVD/video science instruction, and for 7th grade you want the ones titled "__________ in Action." For example, "The Human Body in Action." I've linked the company's website, just look under the "Science" heading. When I buy these I try to get them used from Amazon or -- if possible -- on Prime Video. NOVA, MythBusters, and so on: you can focus on building enthusiasm & a knowledge base with documentaries and so on. General: maybe call the folks at Rainbow Resource or use their online help/chat during business hours. Their people know about so many resources, and when I'm troubleshooting I often ring them. A precious thing to know is that they really are not into selling stuff: I've had Rainbow Resource people send me links to free resources, or discourage me from purchasing something expensive because they didn't think it would be the best use of rmoney given my needs. They just really want to help people educate successfully. Good luck!

Morning! Chief order of the day: migraine management. I think, if nobody objects, I'll use this space to jot my notes as I go through the day. If somebody does object I can fix it later! Today's essential acute stuff: fitness (run + DareBee for boys; yoga, aerobics, strength, before-bed yoga for me in a bid to reset my physiology); house cleaning (FlyLady work, routines, clean kitchen screens); prep school for next week (usual suspects, hammer in the boys' fitness, would love to do a ton of science and get to memory work, Shakespeare & Bible); come up with a plan for 30 - 60 minutes independent work for younger during day; draft a rough schedule for the week incorporating all the funky stuff that comes up; work on my RPG some; work on holidays some. Today's planning work: in addition to independent work schedule + rough schedule above, draft of meals for the week and of science work for boys and practice piano. this week: Thanksgiving prep find watch with timer for elder + younger